Where Have I Been?

This is the part where I'm going to try to updated SOME THINGs that have happened so far for CLUTCH. Thanks to April, our coordinator (our agent), our schedule has been overbooked with wonderful workshops, guest speakers and projects to finish up.

"IT'S CRUNCH TIME GIRLS!"

[Mithi Esguerra]
We had discussions of how we view ourselves in the community and went on to discussing about the “Socialization of Filipino Women” and the role they played in ‘his’tory; From the Spanish and American colonization, through the struggles of the revolutions, and to the different occupations that the Filipina has to take in order to survive. Looking back at it, we seemed more “Badass” until we got degraded by societal views of the Americanized mind.

[Alex Felipe] Photography
We went through the basics of photography; from the use of space, angle, rule of 3rds, simplicity and balance...etc. After the lecture we got to play around with Photoshop and the necessary tools in editing digital photographs.

[Jeff Garcia] Silk Screening intro

We only had time to do a lecture and will be doing the actual workshop later in January.

[Bernice Gei-Ying Hune]
We had to rush to the next workshop after Jeff’s, and into the Chinese Canadian National Council office to listen to Bernice’s Stories. “Bernice works with facts and memories to create narratives. She shares her process to encourage others to participate in artistic endeavours.”

And with that bit of encouragement we took the chance of promoting our program “CLUTCH” in what we do, where we are based, and how to get there. We told them that we are going to have a gallery setup for people to come and see. I just really wished I had more of the little KPC bookmarks to handout... I only had five at that moment. (until I realized I had more in the other bag pockets). Oh well! Hope that Bernice’s message was heard to support artistic endeavours.

[Spray Painting ideas]
We headed back to KPC right after CCNC to brainstorm what we still needed to get done in time for the gallery. At this point we also started to think of what to name our precious.

Desiree, Kristina and April went on a scavenger hunt for wood scraps in an architecture dumpster. I'm pretty sire they had a blast because they brought a van full of wood pieces.

(Here's a rough assembly of the pieces)

......[ Documentation Vidz - Thinking of the Perfect Exhibit Name ]......

Enjoy the vids ^_^

D.A.P.

CLUTCH Drawing Circle Jam

Ever been to a jam session? Music lovers getting together, picking up an instrument (or noise-making object) and playing, zoning out, mixing beats and vocals and uncanny sounds and ideas.

Silkscreen artist Jeff Garcia's version of a jam session? A Drawing Circle. Last Thursday, he threw us our very first CLUTCH drawing circle at his humble abode/studio. How it works is simple: we sit around a table, armed with anything from old books and scissors, to funky pens and markers, and we collage/cut/paste/draw/doodle whatever the eff we want or feel at that moment in time. Then we pass it on to the next person, who builds on what we just did until we've reached a wild, jam-making, total eclipse of the soul explosive creation (to us at least).

Joined by the wonderful illustrator and CLUTCH alumnus Krystel Pasignasigna, and another long-time friend of Jeff's, we spent a whopping six hours creating works and swapping. Janeane Garofalo, Bruce Lee and a dash of wine also helped make the night a little more interesting. Here are some photos from the night:

Filipino Poetry Workshop = Chills

Two hours was not enough.

I’m sure anyone who has met spoken word artist Len Cervantes will agree. Coordinator of Kapisanan’s ever-growing workshop series Poetry is Our Second Language and eight-year veteran of spoken word, Len introduced the CLUTCH girls to tanagas, balagtasans and the history of poetic expression in the Philippines this past Saturday.

Sitting beside us was a young lady by the name of Naya Valdellon, whom Len had brought along as a “special guest.” She seemed unassuming, exhibiting no pretensions but instead a gentle eagerness to be there, so I figured she was with us to learn about poetry, perhaps attempt to write a couple on the spot. As soon as she began reading out the first few lines of her poetry, we knew we were in the presence of greatness. Turns out not only does she have several poems published in magazines and books (such as "One Hundred Love Poems: Philippine Love Poems Since 1905," seen above), she has also received the Palanca Award two years in a row — a prestigious national literary award, basically the Pulitzer Prize of the Philippines.

Her words gave us chills and poem after poem, Kristina and I sat dreamy-eyed, chins resting on our fists like little children, enthralled with Naya’s natural ability to story-tell through poetry. “All kids started out as artists,” she said. “What we need to do as artists now is see that same world with wonder.” Having lived in the Philippines all her life, the former editor and content writer for a website design company decided to “go on an adventure” and head to Toronto in 2006 for the English and Creative Writing masters program at U of T. She fell in love with the city and has been here since, even amalgamating poems about her previous life in Manila with newfound Toronto stories about the mix of people and urban landscape. She also admits to learning about her own Filipino identity just as much as we were: “Growing up in the Philippines, I never questioned my identity … Writing about being Filipino in the Philippines was considered corny,” she told us.

We told her our own stories and how we could relate to her, despite our differences in backgrounds and where we all grew up. We saw ourselves through her and it was comforting. Len agreed: we need to see more of these strong female writers and chill-inducing spoken word artists in the community... and beyond. We didn’t have enough time to pummel her with more questions we had about her life in the Philippines, her writing processes and learning experiences but Len did have time to give us homework: to come up with our own “tanaga” — a sort of Filipino haiku, but with seven syllables and four verses, same rhyme at the end of each line — to be posted on the CLUTCH blog in the next couple weeks.

“You always have to be ready for inspiration,” Len said to us. My pen will be ready.

DG

Other quick updates:
-Met with silkscreen artist Jeff Garcia last week at his studio for a brainstorming blitz for our project (and potential installation piece) and demo sesh to get an idea of the process. Uber cool guy with raging ideas, raging energy and raging hair.

-Went on a wild goose chase, running up and down each floor of an architecture school, finding scrap wood materials for our spray-painting piece. Found sweet pieces, despite cut-eye from students. Garbage turned art... adds a new dimension to the final piece.

-More hours spent coming up with a title for the February 20 exhibit. You could tell when the delirium kicks in as you read through the long list of ideas, top to bottom. We want it to punch your soul...

An Excerpt of a Clutch Brainstorm!

The Clutch ladies have been brainstorming a title for their final exhibit, to be held at the Kapisanan Philippine Centre on February 20. This is a little snippet from one of their email conversations (written by Des Gamotin). We'll have to see what they finally settle on. - a.a.

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After our "Web of Word Vom," we noticed that many of our recurrent words and themes involved FEMININITY and STRENGTH (not the "I want to be better than boys" kind, but the confident, beautiful kind, independent of any attempts to become more masculine). The imagery of WATER and NATURE kept cropping up as well, and the idea that the Philippines continues to go through abuses, but keeps gaining strength from those abuses and rape of the land, giving HER the will to fight back. Therefore, even after much successful brainpower, we still want to keep the title of "Mother Land" for the exhibit, although there's still room for wordplay and/or layout, so as to make the wording appear thought-provoking at first glance. What do you think? We kept the paper we brainshat on, for future reference, so you could take a look at it the next time you're at KPC. I loved how Kristina mentioned that "Mother Land" reminded her of how they would shout "Inang Bayan!" ("Defend your Motherland!") during war... it kind of reminded me of the female guerilla units Mithi talked about in class. Also, "Mother Land" could have multiple meanings, like we mentioned before, such as the Philippines as a nation, the concept of the feminization of migration and movement of people between "Lands," AND the pack-rat nature of our nanays and lolas. It's actually a perfect title for what we're all trying to convey!

Photography is a language

This past Saturday, the CLUTCH ladies had back-to-back workshops, beginning with a lesson on the socialization of women in the Philippines, with Mithi Esguerra. With a background in social work and a keen interest in women’s issues, Mithi revealed her extensive knowledge on the history of Filipino women from the pre-colonial times leading up to today. While we briefly touched on the role of women in the revolution during Filipino History class on Thursdays, we never delved beyond names and facts until Mithi’s workshop. Here, we learned about the gradual degradation of women’s status in the Philippines, leadership roles and structures today and the different movements initiated by Filipinas. Cool (yet semi-depressing) things we learned about involved women’s guerilla units, “Babaeng Bayaran,” consumerism geared towards Filipinas and the feminization of migration.

More importantly, we were able to openly discuss, to each other, our personal experiences and relationships with the main Filipino women in our lives: our mothers... and how their values and belief systems were shaped depending on the "Filipino-ness" of the culture they were brought up in. It seemed as though each of us in CLUTCH was raised quite differently, ranging along a spectrum between “the typical strict Filipina nanay” to “the liberal free-spirited Westernized mom.” It was really interesting to share and even more so interesting to relate it to historical and cultural constructions.

After a brief break, we went ahead with Part 2 of the day-long workshop with our Filipino History teacher himself: Alex Felipe a.k.a. World Photojournalist Extraordinaire (http://alexfelipe.com/). Seeing as it was a Photography Workshop, I was under the impression we were going to be handed cameras for the day and told to run around the city, trigger-happy, clicking away like a little kid with a toy gun. Turns out the workshop was a lot better (and a lot more beneficial!) than I had imagined, sans camera. Having had his work featured in publications like Toronto Star and This Magazine, Alex shared his trade secrets, his photo-philosophy and the technical rules of what makes a great photo: “A great photograph is NEVER about a person, place or event; it’s about symbols, signs and icons composed together artfully.” It makes sense—but we never think it. Nowadays, photos are taken for granted, judging by the arms-length “self-portraits” cropping up on TwittMyFaceSpaceBook every second.

When Alex talks photography, it’s tough to keep up with. He rarely takes a breath in between his words. He tells a story about each of his photo as if he is back in the same setting looking into the same lens all over again. He talks about developing a level of trust with your subject and how a combination of timing, patience and chance is key. He could enter a room and assess what angle with which sort of lighting would convey this sort of emotion from that perspective. You could tell he was born to do this. And I’m jealous.

After a presentation on composition, we were taught how to use Photoshop on our laptops to enhance photos, adjust colour and lighting, contrast, etc. It wasn’t easy and Alex’s speedy mouse-clicking skills were no match for my now powerless MacBook touchpad. But I have a feeling my newfound relationship with Photoshop is only the beginning.

Our photography critique is next week. Can’t wait to see what we each come up with…

DG

Spray painting workshop

We finally had our spray painting workshop last Saturday, November 14. Jabari Elliott, (http://www.elicser.com/), a well-respected and established graffiti artist, was the one who conducted the workshop. He invited us in his house, which was also his studio. We were all amazed at his supply of art materials and artworks that he hung on the walls of his apartment.

He decided to show us around the few alleys in the city where there were a lot of very good graffiti art made by various artists including himself. He's such an animated character. He went on and explained the different groups of graffiti artists,
the disputes between these groups, the unofficial rules that go about with all real graffiti artists and many more.

I agree with what he told us about how the only works which no one ever dare touch are the ones that are very old or/and very good. People, at least most people, respect old graffiti art and the ridiculously good ones. All graffiti artworks are vulnerable to a lot of factors once they're out there on the public place. Others can vandalize on them or cover them up with another artwork. I can't help but admire the ones that managed to endure on the public walls of Toronto.

He then took us to visit his friend's studio. He called this friend, "Uber". He mentioned him earlier that day because he explained that his group of friends tribute each other by including their names on some of the artworks that they've done all over the city. The guy named Uber is apparently fixated on chickens. Should we ever come across a chicken, spray-painted on any wall in Toronto, we should know that they're all done by that one person. It's actually
pretty neat. The chicken is almost like his signature. Jabari's works have a certain distinct characteristic in them too. The caricature-ish quality, sometimes a bit gestural, and the contrast of the colours all combine into Jabari's style.
His friend's house was also interesting. He had a lot of artworks displayed on his walls. I couldn't help but ask them both a million questions because they're really in the current industry. We learned a lot from what they shared about their lifestyles as artists in the city. He recommended a few books that will definitely be useful to us, as visual artists.

It was getting dark so we had to move on and actually start trying out the spray paints. He demonstrated it first then let us try it out for ourselves. It reminded me so much of Zen Buddhism. In spray painting, we've observed that there is no room for hesitation. The motion and the speed is everything. There is no holding back to it. It is a forgiving medium for sure, because you can just spray paint over the ones you've done if you're not satisfied with them, but at the same time, the result is also very instant. An error can occur in a matter of less than a second. I got very fond of it because of that quality. It demands fearlessness from its user. Fearlessness during time pressure. You have to make up your mind where you're going to direct the can in just a matter of seconds.

The lessons we've learned from the experiences and stories they shared were really inspiring. Learning a new medium is always refreshing because all art materials/mediums have their own characteristic that not only we could use to do art, but also to learn from and perhaps apply in our own lives.

By the way! Thanks a lot, April, for driving us around that day. It made the workshop very convenient and smooth-sailing!

Also, thank you Flerida for the pictures. Des, I didn't use the pictures that you sent me because I don' t know how to flip it. Do you know how to do it? Thanks Des!

KG